The Traveling Corpse

by Double Edge Press

  The little old mobile home was set down on a street in the older part of the park twenty-four years ago when it was brand new and state of the art. It was a long, narrow single-wide, 14’ x 60’, and still had its trailer hitch attached to the front.

  The Davises had worked hard remodeling the manufactured house themselves. They painted the dark wood paneling an off-white color. You could still see the grooves in the paneling; they didn’t fill those in. It added texture to the rooms, and the off-white paint brightened them, especially the narrow hallway that led down one side of the unit to the two bedrooms and bath. Vertical blinds replaced the heavy avocado-colored drapes and sheers that the original owner had hung there in the 1970’s when that kind and color of window treatment was the height of fashion. Now it was cozy and comfortable. “It would be more comfy, though,” DeeDee had once said, “if it had a second bathroom.”

  The other thing DeeDee missed was her grand piano. There certainly was no room for a musical instrument as big as that in the small area which served as their dining and living room.

  Yes, Annie thought to herself, it’s old and small, but very attractive, and I love being in DeeDee’s home. Perhaps she loved it because it was here that the four women cemented, or at least started cementing, their unusually strong friendships.

  Doc welcomed them, “Come on in; she’s sitting on a heating pad. I took her to the osteopath this morning. She got a shot; so she’s getting relief from the pain.”

  DeeDee greeted her friends without standing up. “He gave me an adjustment too, before tha cortisone shot. That helped. It jest doesn’t seem fair; I’m younger than tha rest of y’all, an’ I’m tha one that’s laid up!”

  “You’ll be up and at ‘em in a couple of days and leading the pack,” Barb predicted.

  Doc excused himself, “If you ladies don’t mind, Connie is calling me.”

  “What did he mean by that?” Barb questioned as he left the room. “Who is Connie?”

  “Oh, that? That’s his name fer his computer. He’s named it ‘Connie.’ He’s gotten all involved with his computer. He can do something he calls ‘email’—writes to our kids in Ohio, an’ it doesn’t cost a penny! I don’t understand it, but he spends a lotta time with Connie!”

  The telephone rang and a few minutes later Doc came back into the living room with a sweater and his car keys in his hand. “If you’re okay, DeeDee,” Doc said, “I’ve got to go to the animal shelter. They just called. The regular veterinarian’s got the flu and needs to go home. I’ll go and relieve him for the rest of the afternoon. Do you want me to pick up anything for supper or do you want to go out?” Doc asked.

  DeeDee bit her lower lip as she thought a moment before saying, “I think I’d rather jest stay in for supper. Would ya mind pickin’ up two plates of spaghetti with meat sauce for us? Oh! an’ two Greek side salads. Thanks, darlin’.”

  “Girls, take good care of her. ‘Bye.” Doc left for the animal shelter where he could put his years of experience as a veterinarian to good use.

  After he left, DeeDee asked Verna, “Did ya enjoy Book Club?”

  “Oh, yes! It’s usually stimulating; puts your mind to working.” Then Verna said, “I’ve got good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?”

  DeeDee hurried to answer, “I certainly wan’ ta hear the good news first!”

  “Here it is then,” Verna said. “You know, Nanette is our leader of Book Club. I think the woman reads everything! Well, this afternoon, she started off our meeting by telling this story. It shows the value of reading, she says. She got it in an e-mail:

  “It seems there was a couple who decided to go on vacation. The husband loved to fish, and he wanted to go to northern Minnesota. His wife didn’t fish; she loved to read, but she agreed to go so he could fish, and she’d read.

  “One morning, her husband went out fishing at the crack of dawn. Aftah several hours of fishing, he came in and decided to take a nap. By this time, the sun was up and it was a pretty day. Although she wasn’t familiar with the lake, the wife decided to take the boat out. She motored out a ways, cut the engine, threw out the anchor, picked up her book, and began to read.

  “A game warden came along in his boat. He pulled up beside her and said, ‘Good morning, m’am. What are you doing?’

  “‘Reading a book,’ she replied, thinking to herself that it was obvious what she was doing.

  “He informed her, ‘You’re in a restricted fishing area.’

  “And she replied, ‘I’m sorry officer, but I’m not fishing; I’m reading.’

  “‘Yes, but you have all the equipment. I’ll have to take you in and write you up.’

  “‘If you do that, I’ll have to charge you with sexual assault,’ the woman said.

  “Shocked, the game warden said, ‘But, I haven’t even touched you!’

  “‘That’s true, but you have all the equipment.’

  “MORAL,” Verna finished, “nevah argue with a woman who reads. It’s likely she can also think!”

  After the women stopped laughing, Annie asked Verna what her bad news was.

  “It’s about Twila. Twila Thompson, that new woman in BradLee. Her sister-in-law, Tilley, comes to Book Club. She’s says they are very worried about Twila because she hasn’t come home. It’s been two days now. They didn’t worry too much at first because they thought she was just staying longer with her friends on Sanibel Island. They didn’t know the name of those friends to call them; so last night they finally called the Sheriff’s office to report her missing!”

  With a heavy heart, Annie said, “It’s finally happened! Someone is officially missing. I didn’t want it to happen, but I knew it had to come to this. Oh, dear! This is so sad, but at last someone is officially reported missing. We’ll get more help now from the law.”

  “And we’re pretty sure the worst has happened to her,” Barb added.

  “It must have been Twila’s hand I felt in that drawer. Girls, we need to talk. We need to get right down to business.” Annie turned to DeeDee, “First, you need to hear what happened this morning. Are you feeling up to it?” When DeeDee nodded, Annie continued, “Verna, why don’t you tell her what you learned from Kitty Kreeger? Then Barb and I can tell you what we saw on the golf course.”

  DeeDee listened with interest, making comments and asking questions as the story unfolded. When they finished, she said, “Y’all did so good, an’ ya won’t believe this, but I learned something strange at the doctor’s office!” They looked at her expectantly, “I was sittin’ in the doctor’s waitin’ room when Jiggs comes in. His granddaughter dropped him off; she lives in town, ya know. Anyway, he comes over an’ sits down beside me, an’ we started visitin’. Well, I got him talkin’ about Bingo, an’ after awhile I asked him how Karl Kreeger felt about havin’ an assistant to help him with Bingo. Jiggs sortta stiffened an’ he told me that Karl never spoke ta him about it—never even mentioned it ta him atall! Not one little word! Don’t y’all think that’s very strange? I don’t believe he was tellin’ me tha truth.

  “Then tha nurse calls Jiggs in; so I started readin’ a magazine. I’m waitin’ fer Doc ta pick me up; he went up to K-Mart ta buy some stones ta edge our landscaping. Anyway, I’m still sittin’ thar when Jiggs comes out, an’ he sits down beside me again. He’s waitin’ fer his granddaughter ta pick him up; she didn’t want him drivin’ after gettin’ a shot. She’s good ta watch out fer her gramps since he lost his wife.

  “I don’t know what was in that shot he got, but it sure loosened his tongue! He was on a talkin’ jag. That shot may have gone inta his bottom, but it sure did loosen his tongue at his top end! I think he told me more than he meant ta about Karl! I know we sometimes call him ‘Jolly Jiggs’; well, he certainly was jolly—like a happy drunk, he was!

  “You know that Jiggs has a little business on the side, don’t cha? He drives people back an’ forth ta tha airport. Well, this is the part he told me that I don’t think he wouldda told me
before gettin’ that shot: Jiggs said Karl asked him ta pick him up at tha Tampa Airport an’ bring him home on Wednesday. He didn’t say what time it was. Don’t y’all think that’s strange? Why would he be needin’ a ride only back from tha airport?”

  Barb questioned, “He just wanted a one-way ride? Karl only wanted a ride back from the airport? Yes, DeeDee, I do think that is strange. Very strange!”

  “I don’t think he could have flown anyplace in that short of a time,” Verna reasoned. “We saw him at Bingo on Tuesday night. He’s retired. It’s not like he would be making a short business trip.”

  “I think I saw him about 5:30 Tuesday morning. That’s when I think he carried away that body from behind tha A/C units,” DeeDee added.

  Annie was quick to sum up the situation: “Twila’s car is missing, and Karl needs a ride back from the airport. And just how did Karl get to the airport?” She answered her own question, “I think he drove Twila’s car down there and left it in the parking garage. Nobody would bother to look for it in there for a long time.”

  “That’s right. It could very well be Twila’s car because a neighbor said she thought she’d seen it in Twila’s drive for just a little while on Tuesday afternoon. Do ya know what I think? I think Twila drove home from Sanibel an’ stopped at her house for a few minutes. Then she drove on over ta tha clubhouse. She doesn’t have a golf cart, I don’t think; so she’d have ta use her car or walk.” Her friends let DeeDee go on with her reasoning, “What if Twila met with Karl in Old Main? She tells him that she’s been looking at what records there are an’ the figures don’t add up—that money seems ta be missing from tha Bingo funds. She couldn’t be certain because Karl would need money for expenses for equipment, an’ he didn’t keep any books on what he spent fer supplies. Now bein’ questioned by a woman would surely upset Karl. If he lost his temper an’ hit her, an’ if she accidentally died, he couldda panicked an’ hid her body in that drawer with all tha decorations in it.”

  Annie picked up the thread, “And when he saw me looking in that drawer, he knew he needed to move the body; so when the lights went out he quick-like pulled the body from the one drawer and stuffed it into the other.”

  “And that’s how her shoe ended up in one drawer,” Barb surmised. “The other shoe fell off when he pushed her body along with the trolley under the stage.”

  Verna was getting excited, and it warmed her up. She pulled off her red sweater as she picked up the reasoning, “Then aftah every one had cleaned up the hall aftah Bingo, he took her out of that drawer and carried her outside. The tissue must have dropped out of her pocket then. He didn’t know what to do with her body; so he stuffed her behind one of the A/C things, and then he came back very early Wednesday morning. That’s when her jeans tore, and I found that scrap of material caught on the sheet metal.”

  Barb wondered, “Do you suppose we could get Deputy Menendez to have somebody check the long-term parking garage at the airport for her car? I don’t even know what kind or color car she drove, but the police could get that information if they want to. Annie, why don’t you call Menendez? I think you should do it right now.”

  Annie looked at her friends; they looked at her, and she could read their minds. She reached for the telephone on the end table. “I don’t want to call 911; I’d rather call the sheriff’s office directly. Where’s your phone book?” DeeDee pointed to a shelf. As she thumbed through the directory, Annie said, “Before I dial, will you bow your heads with me? I feel a sentence prayer coming on: God, it’s Annie down here and my dear friends too. We are really involved in ‘Our Mystery.’ Guide us, protect us, and help us make good decisions. Thanks, God. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

  Her friends were encouraged by the length of Annie’s phone conversation with Sgt. Menendez. If the sergeant thought Annie was being frivolous, she would have cut her off in short fashion, but she didn’t; she listened, and she asked questions. Annie was smiling when she hung up. “I think she’s going to do it. She’s going to ask Tampa police to check out the airport after she determines Twila’s license plate, car make and color. Now that her brother and sister-in-law have filed a formal complaint of a missing person, we’re getting cooperation. Isn’t that wonderful?”

  They all agreed it was great to be working with the law instead of just trying to convince them that a crime had been committed.

  Annie brought out a legal pad and pen from the tote she had brought with her. “I think we need to make notes of what has happened so far—to make a time chart of of what we know and of what we’ve found.”

  The Golfin’ Gals worked hard setting down the facts and details that they knew. They stayed focused on the matter; not one of them began to gossip. They were committed to proving there was a body, and they thought that body was Twila Thompson’s. They also believed that Karl Kreeger was trying to hide her body.

  Verna speculated, “Do you suppose DeeDee’s right—that Karl lost his tempah and pushed her? Knocked her over?”

  “An’ jest like in tha movies, she hit her head an’ it killed her!”

  “If they were meeting on the stage, and he shoved her, she could have fallen off the stage. If she hit her head just right, that could have killed her,” Barb reasoned. “Maybe broke her neck?”

  Annie didn’t think their ideas were far-fetched. She rubbed her left temple as she said, “And like we reasoned before, if no one finds a body, it’s hard to prove there’s a crime. So, maybe, just maybe, Karl’s been trying to hide Twila’s body. He’s had to move it around a lot. This cold weather put a damper in his plans.”

  “That’s right!” Verna said enthusiastically, “He couldn’t bury the body until just before they would pour the cement or a fox or something might dig it up.”

  “If he didn’t bury it deep enough,” DeeDee added, “those Sand Hill Cranes could expose it with their long bills.”

  “And that’s why he’s had to keep moving it. He had to keep the body out of sight until he could bury it in the cart path. Once cement was poured over the body, he was scot-free,” Annie concluded.

  * * *

  After the four women finished jotting down what they knew about the traveling corpse, they began to make a second list about what they suspected of Karl Kreeger. Annie jotted them down in the order her friends recalled the incidents:

  Told his wife they were moving out of the park; she doesn’t want to leave BradLee.

  He put his house up for sale; this seemed to be a sudden decision.

  Karl saw Annie open the drawer on Monday night.

  They knew he called the first half of Bingo on Monday night, as usual. But they didn’t see him when they went back to Old Main with the deputies.

  Karl never speaks about having an assistant appointed by the Board of Trustees to Jiggs, who is his close friend and Bingo worker. Maybe Jiggs is lying.

  DeeDee saw a man the size of Karl lift something up from behind the A/C units and head off through the shuffleboard courts early Wednesday morning.

  Told his wife he needed their golf cart on Wednesday, a.m. and drove off even though Kitty had told him earlier that she needed it that day.

  His wife saw their cart parked in a driveway of friends that were out of town. Could he have left the body in the cart? The side curtains were down; so it wouldn’t be easy for anyone to see it unless they walked up to the cart.

  Annie and Barb wonder if Karl saw them go into the new bathroom on the golf course; that could be why the body was moved from the restroom.

  Annie and Barb saw a golf cart that looked like Karl’s parked half hidden behind a shed in a field with ostriches and emus.

  Wire fence was partially cut.

  Jiggs drives Karl home from the Tampa airport on Wednesday. They think Karl drove Twila’s car to the airport.

  After they finished their list, Verna asked, “You know what we haven’t considered? What about this? Maybe Karl left the car in the airport parking lot, and maybe, just maybe, he left her body in it!”<
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  DeeDee gasped, “What a horrible thing ta do, but it would be a smart way ta get rid of that body fer a few days.”

  I’ll add it to our list:

  Body may be in her car at Tampa airport.

  Annie rubbed her temple with her left hand, “But I don’t feel comfortable about the track we’re on, something isn’t right. We’re not sure what time Jiggs picked Karl up at the airport on Wednesday. It would have had to be late on Wednesday because Barb saw the body in the restroom that afternoon, and I caught a glimpse of him at the BradLee dinner.”

  “They could have driven to Tampa after the dinner,” Verna said.

  “I suppose they could,” Annie agreed, “but I don’t have good vibes about that scenario. In fact, I have an idea tickling my brain.”

  “Oh, oh!” Barb exclaimed. “We’re in for more adventure! What is it?”

  “I don’t know about adventure. Actually, it may be boring.”

  “Things aren’t usually boring when you’re involved, Annie,” DeeDee laughed.

  “Tell us what you have up your sleeve,” Verna urged.

  Annie hesitated then blurted out, “I want to go on a stake-out.”

  “When?”

  “Tonight.”

  “In this cool weather?”

  “I can’t control the weather. It has to be tonight. I think tomorrow will be too late,” Annie answered.

  “Too late for what?” Barb asked.

  “To see if Karl buries the body.”

  “Where?”

  “In that new golf cart path the men are working on near Blue Number Five. I think the men are planning to pour the cement tomorrow.” Annie went on to explain, “That’s why we need to go tonight. We should drive our golf carts over there and park them where we can’t be easily seen, but where we can see the path near the tee and the field with the ostriches and emus. We need to get there just after dark. You’ll have to be very quiet. You can’t even cough or sneeze!”